United States of America Wiki:Your first article
Welcome to the United States of America Wiki! This is a guide to some things you should know before creating your first encyclopedia article. We'll explain some of the DOs and DO NOTs of writing an article, then we'll tell you how to create your article. Before you create your first new article, here are some tips that may help you along: #'Try editing existing articles' to get a feel for writing and for using the mark-up language in use at the Wiki. #'Search the United States of America Wiki first' to make sure that an article does not already exist on the subject, perhaps under a different title. If the article already exists, feel free to make any constructive edits you feel are necessary. #'Consider creating the article on user sub-page' If you register an account, you'll find that you have your own user page. You can make your own area there to start working on a new article; you can get it in shape there, take your time, and only move it into the "live" United States of America Wiki once it is ready for prime time. #Remember the article you create will be deleted quickly if it is not acceptable. The Wiki has a where people check your new articles shortly after you create them. #'Gather references' if you're dealing with an esoteric topic to demonstrate its existence to prevent accidental deletion of your article. #Please do not create pages about yourself (use ) or any other person. Search for an existing article The United States of America Wiki already has a of articles. Before creating an article, try to make sure there is not already an article, perhaps under a slightly different name. If an article on your topic is there, but you think people are likely to look for it under some different name or spelling, learn how to add a redirect with that name; adding needed redirects is a good way to help Wikipedia. Also, remember to check the article's deletion log in order to avoid creating an article that has already been deleted. If a search does not find your article, consider broadening your search to find existing articles that might include the subject of your article. For example, if you want to write an article about a building, you might search for the area where it is located and then add information about your subject to that broader article. How to create a page In the search box below, type the title of your article, then click Go. If the Search page reports "No page with that title exists" then you can click the red "Create the page" link to start editing your article. Another option would be to go . If you know that it will take you a few edits to properly list references, put the templates or on top of the page to signify to other editors that you are working on it, so they do not tag it for deletion yet. Even better is to create your article in a subpage of your user page, take as long as you need to make it a good article, then move it to the main article space. After you have entered your article, click Show preview to check for errors, then click Save page. And then what? #Check to see if there are any template boxes that you could use for your article. #Make sure your article links to other articles so that it doesn't become a #Make sure that other articles link to your article so it doesn't become an #Make sure that you categorize your article by putting Category:XYZ where XYZ is the name of the category. For a list of categories, please . Further information To edit and format your article correctly (and expand it), see the links below. * * * *United States of America Wiki:Style_guide And remember: others can freely contribute to the article when it has been saved. The creator does not have special rights to control the later content. Category: United States of America Wiki